Dead man will be remembered for spreading oral cancer
Source: The Gawker/ WSJ Author: Steven Miller Louis Bantle, the former marketing director and chairman of U.S. Tobacco, died earlier this month at the age of 81 from emphysema and lung cancer. Bantle was most famous for convincing millions of teenagers to dip. The WSJ chroniclesBantle's work from the 1960s through the 1990s, during which time he helped turn snuff into a billion-dollar business and tripled its use among 18-24 year-olds. "We must sell the use of tobacco in the mouth and appeal to young people," he said, according to the minutes of a marketing meeting in 1968. "We hope to start a fad." "If you go to high school in Texas and you don't have a can of snuff in your pocket, you're out," Mr. Bantle told Forbes in 1980. Your legacy will live on, Mr. Bantle. Original Article from the WSJ: Louis Bantle made dipping snuff into a national pastime. Mr. Bantle, who died Oct. 10 at age 81 after a long struggle with lung cancer and emphysema, was chairman of United States Tobacco Co. for two decades beginning in 1973, a period that saw an explosion in snuff's popularity, particularly among younger users. In the 1970s, sales of the company's Skoal and Copenhagen tobaccos were relatively small and concentrated in the upper Midwest, where Scandinavian woodcutters had spread the smokeless habit in the 19th century. Mr. Bantle ramped up advertising featuring football and rodeo star Walt Garrison and other rugged athletes. He introduced a series of "starter" [...]